Discussion [Lesser-Known Fandoms] Tell us about yours! (image-heavy)

I have a mishmash of something that I'm working on and an Out Of This World fic, yes... just don't ask me to write QL. I'm not certain I'd do it justice.

 

I've only written one story for the Hornblower fandom...it's not about He Who Is Flawed And Tone Deaf, but is about the best friend he was given in the TV series that didn't exist in the novels except as one midshipman with a walk-on role (intermixed with certain important aspects from another character). The character in question was named Archie Kennedy, and in the A&E series, the poor dear went through some...stuff. He also looked mighty pretty whilst going through his travails...but then he got better...and then he...no, not going there. Too sad, man, too sad.

But without this role, somebody else would have played Apollo these last few seasons on BSG instead of Jamie Bamber. So it all worked out well in the real world.

Well, anyway, the story I wrote in 2001 just before the second series aired...

Oh, teh ag-o-neeeeee...oh, teh wangst

 

Only a short story, illustrated, in the Magnificent Seven fandom. There are pictures of the OW town plus the seven characters. Not action, just what a day in their life could have been like when nothing happens. I guess it could be an introduction to the characters and setting, so I think it's not too off topic to post the link here.

http://www.blackraptor.net/m7fic-43/daygoesby.htm


And a real shorty, called Seven, of what I see as the start of these seven men's working together. The rest is very unfinished I'm afraid.

Anyone else???

 

Name of original work: The Chronicles of Prydain
Original creator(s): Lloyd Alexander
Original language and country of origin: English, American
Media type: Books
Short summary: Tells the story of a kid who goes from pig tender to the big time in a medival fantasy world.
Links for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Prydain


The Chronicles are somewhere between Narnia and LOTR as far as reading level goes. For a darker side of Alexander, the Westmark trilogy is pretty awesome.

Summary: Basically a political trilogy, takes place in Westmark, (which is pretty much England in the 1700s).

 

I utterly love those books, snowspeeder!!!!

And there's fanfic for them? Oh, I hope there's some where Adaon stays alive

 

Drabbi-Wan_Kenobi: Now for all these fandoms people are listing, do you guys have stories to go with them?

More importantly - at least from my rather bitter point of view - you guys have done at least the minimal amount of research to make sure the fandoms don't explicitly forbid fan fiction, right?

- lazy

 

Now for all these fandoms people are listing, do you guys have stories to go with them?

I have several attempts at vignettes, both for Duane and McCaffery, but nothing that was every able to be fully completed.

More importantly - at least from my rather bitter point of view - you guys have done at least the minimal amount of research to make sure the fandoms don't explicitly forbid fan fiction, right?

Yup! Diane Duane actively encourages fanfiction (there was, in fact, a collaborative project sponsered by her a while ago), while McCaffery has only recently (within the past few months) opened up to limited fanfiction. ff.net has a link for her rules.

 

For the fandoms I posted, absolutely...and I would imagine this to be true for the other users who have done the same in this thread.

 

Well, I'm only in one other fandom, Magnificent Seven, where fans had their own place, because it was the fans who made season 2 possible through very hard campainging (not a boast, it's the truth). Fanfic is allowed and was even known and read by the people of this show. For instance, the town protected by the Seven never got a name in the series, but on set it was called Four Corners, strictly coming from fanfic and now the name used by everone. And one of the actors was shocked by the kind of stories not allowed here, so he made a specific request that writers would make sure they aren't easily accessible and have age restriction. That's why I would only archive my stories on the Blackraptor site, because they abide by that.

It's a good question, one I never thought about, because I'm only in a fandom where it's allowed. And coming here now has definitely shown me there's a lot I don't know about the whole fanfic thing.

Like fanfic written for books. I have to say, personally I never thought about writing fanfiction for books, because, well, books are written things themselves and to me it feels like 'not done'. I was rather surprised when I saw there's fanfiction for them too. TV series and movies are different for me. Heck, they even have official books written for them (like Star Wars, a whole line of official fanfiction right out there) so I never felt that was wrong myself.

Then again, using a book as a basis to rewrite it into a piece of fanfiction, yes, I can see that, providing it is made clear by the author (s)he's using said book. Okay, maybe I should think about why I never thought twice about that....

 

I've made quick checks for overt red flags, especially for print properties.

The reason I asked my question about fanfic was that I started to notice that many of the ones being listed weren't showing up on the fanfic board. [Don't worry, leiamoody, I've taken care of Red Dwarf for you.]


From Sets 15 and 16, here are some of the more obscure fandoms:

Overboard
US comic strip
Created by Chip Dunham
Overboard, which began in 1990, is a daily newspaper comic strip about a ship of pirates led (more or less) by Captain Henry Crow. Crow's crew includes Charley, Seahawk, and the hulking Nate.

Quark
1977-1978 US television series (8 episodes)
Created by Buck Henry
Quark, which debuted a couple weeks before Star Wars but did not go to series until the following year, was a sitcom about Adam Quark (Richard Benjamin), captain of a garbage ship. His crew included the unemotional Ficus Pandorata ((Richard Kelton) actually a sentient plant, though he looked human), the half-male/half-female Gene/Jean (Tim Thomerson), Betty I and II ((Cyb and Patricia Barnstable) one of whom was a clone, though nobody knew which), and the cowardly robot Andy. Storylines included elements parodying several other SF franchises, including Star Trek and Star Wars.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs
2003 UK book series
Created by Alexander McCall Smith
Portuguese Irregular Verbs and its two follow-ups, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, all of which came out the same year, were written by Alexander McCall Smith (author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency). They feature comic vignettes in the life and career of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, who is (in his own humble opinion) one of the world's foremost experts on Romance philology and author of one of the most important works in that field, Portuguese Irregular Verbs. His two best friends and colleagues are Professor Dr Dr (honoris causa) Florianus Prinzel and Professor Dr Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer, who are almost as distinguished as Igelfeld himself.

Profit
1996 US television series (9 episodes)
Created by David Greenwalt and John McNamara
Profit was another in the long line of interesting and unusual Fox series with very short runs. [Only four episodes aired before the network pulled the plug.] Adrian Pasdar starred as Jim Profit, an executive at the multinational Gracen & Gracen. Profit was certainly unusual among lead characters at the time (though less so now); he willingly used murder, blackmail, and other crimes to achieve his ends, had an ongoing affair with his stepmother, and slept in a cardboard box like the one in which he'd been left as an infant. Episodes revolved around his various intricate schemes, and he would even narrate his intentions to the audience.

 

Beauty and the Beast

The TV Series.

Created by Ron Koslow.

Set in Modern times, the show aired for three years from 1987 to 1990 and is the story of a Lion - Man named Vincent and a Manhatten attorney named Catherine who meet when she is attacked and left for dead. Played by Hellboy's Ron Perlman and Terminator's Linda Hamilton the series follows these two as they slowly fall in love and two soulmates find each other against all odds.

[image=http://www.andyfilm.com/beautyb06.jpg]

 

[Don't worry, leiamoody, I've taken care of Red Dwarf for you.]

Duly noted. Thanks...I think.

 

I figure having posted a fic about this, I should give this a bit of background info.

Name of original work: Jem & the Holograms
Original creator(s): Joint collaboration by Hasbro, Marvel Comics, and Sunbow Productions. The animation was provided by a Japanese animation studio called Toei Doga (now Toei Animation)
Original language and country of origin: English - USA
Media type: Animated Television Series
Short summary: The show is about music company owner Jerrica Benton, her singer alter-ego, Jem, her band the Holograms, and their adventures.
Links for more info: Jem Unlimited Wikipedia Page

Images:
[image=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/335773379_2280666c6d_o.jpg]

 

Name of original work: Richard Bolitho series
Original creator(s): Alexander Kent (Douglas Reeman)
Original language and country of origin: English, UK.
Media type: Series of books
Short summary: Richard Bolitho comes from a long line of Naval officers. Over the course of the books, he slowly works his way up from Midshipman, and when he dies, his nephew takes over.
Links for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bolitho
Images: N/A

I admit I haven't written anything for this, but I do have an idea I'd like to try someday.

 

Just one fandom this time.


The Fluffy Bunny Show, hosted by a sweet little granny, is-

"I'm sorry, but this entry is being taken by..."

The Secret Show
UK animated series
The Secret Show is a British cartoon about two secret agents, Victor Volt and Anita Knight, who work for U.Z.Z. and battle various threats like T.H.E.M., the Reptogators, the Impostors, and the alien Floaty-Heads. U.Z.Z. is led by a man whose name is changed daily for reasons of security (usually to something embarrassing, like Slinky Wagglebutt or Mimzy Woowoo), and its scientific expert is Professor Professor. Though most episodes do not have big-name guest voices, exceptions have included Stephen Fry and Tom Baker. The shows airs daily in the US on the Nicktoons Network, with two Secret Show shorts in a half-hour timeslot.

 

Does anyone know if there is a fandom based on the Gaudians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg? His books are a taken on the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon with a group of role playing college students are transport by thier college professor to the land of the game and where if you die you die there isn't a dice roll to tell you ho long before you recover. I always thought the story was just aching to be expanded on

 

Okay, I forgot to do this for Set 18, so let's quickly hit a couple from there:

Sledge Hammer!
1986-1988 US television series
Created by Alan Spencer
Sledge Hammer! was a situation comedy about a violence-loving cop named, well, Sledge Hammer (David Rasche). His more sensible partner was Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), and his exasperated superior was Captain Trunk (Harrison Page). The show was notable for its first-season finale, "The Spa Who Loved Me," which ended with the explosion of a nuclear bomb. When ABC renewed the show unexpectedly, the episode was retconned as being five years in the future. Sadly, the second season was the last.

Undeclared
2001-2002 US television series (17 episodes)
Created by Judd Apatow
Undeclared was the series Judd Apatow made between the end of Freaks and Geeks and the onset of his movie success. The Fox show centered on a group of college freshmen living in the dorm and dealing with classes, parties, dates, and all the other elements of campus life.

 

Is Chobits still lesser-known?
I know there's not a lot of merch and such around, even on a comic fair. In Germany, that is, not sure how it looks in other places. I just love the series.
I'm not sure if it is disallwoed. Probably not because otherwise I'd have such a convenient excuse never to finish my crossover.

 

Inuyasha was pretty well known in my high school. In fact, when I dressed up as Kikyo, alot of people recognized the character.

 

Haha! That one was great. But because they kept moving it around I missed the whole second season. I am soooooooo glad it was released on DVD.


How about:

Name: Max Headroom
Created by: No idea
Type: 1980's US TV series - about 14 episodes (I think the original movie was British)
Description: 20 minutes into the future - basically an AU dystopia of modern society where it's illegal to put an off switch on a TV set, which are all probably nuclear powered since they're on all the time, no matter where they are. Follows the new life of computer-generated TV personality Max Headroom, the reporter he was based on and the marginally good-guys at Network 23.

 

Yes, Max Headroom was originally British. [The character was created to host music videos.] Anyway, here are some from Set 19. I wish I could say that the first two don't count as lesser-known, but experience has taught me otherwise.


The Thin Man
1934 US novel and 1934-47 US film series
Novel written by Dashiell Hammett
In 1934, Dashiell Hammett released his novel The Thin Man, which was quickly (within the year) adapted into a classic film starring William Powell as Nick Charles and Myrna Loy as his wife Nora. Nick was a former private detective who had married a wealthy socialite and moved to California to run her late father's business. While they're spending a Christmas holiday in New York, Nick gets reluctantly -- very reluctantly -- pulled into the case of former client Clyde Wynant (the "thin man" of the title), who's vanished after possibly killing his thieving ex-secretary. The film boasted an array of colorful characters, but the secret of its success was the sparkling banter between Powell and Loy, who would go on to play the characters in five more films. [After a while, the use of "Thin Man" in the titles would start to refer to Nick Charles rather than Wynant.] Seriously, this is a film I've made people watch.

The Third Man
1949 US/UK film
Written by Graham Greene
The Third Man is a film classic starring Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, an American writer of pulp westerns, who comes to postwar Vienna at the invitation of his friend Harry Lime. When he arrives, though, he discovers that his friend has just died; worse, he may have been one of the leading figures of the war-ravaged city's black market. Holly is determined to uncover the truth, and he learns that Lime's death may not have been the accident it seemed -- who was the third man at the scene? Orson Welles appears in a supporting role, in which he gets one of the great lines of cinema history (added to the script by Welles himself).

Wacky Races
1968 US animated series (17 episodes)
Wacky Races was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon about a series of auto races through various locales. The same cars and drivers participated in every race; Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley (Car 00, the Mean Machine) were the villains, constantly using different tricks to try to slow down the other racers. Others included southern belle Penelope Pitstop (Car 05, the Compact Pussycat), diminutive gangsters the Ant Hill Mob (Car 07, the Bulletproof Bomb), dashing Peter Perfect (Car 09, the Turbo Terrific), and inventor Pat Pending (Car 03, the Convert-a-Car). Penelope and the Ant Hill Mob would reappear in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, while the villains would show up in several later Hanna-Barbera shows, including lead roles in Dastardly and Muttley and Their Flying Machines.

 

I loved Max Headroom. I had no idea there was so little of it. It feels as if I had watched several seasons!
Talk about impact...

 

Name of original work: Blake's 7
Original creator(s): Terry Nation (who created the Daleks)for BBC
Original language and country of origin: English, Britain
Media type: Television
Short summary: Roj Blake is a political dissident who leads seven (two of which are intelligent computers with a 'life' of their own) people against a corrupt Federation. This series, which ran four seasons, was strong on characterization. It seemed to be England's answer to Star Trek (the original show), only much darker, more cynical, and morally ambiguous. The main villianess, Servalan, rocked.
Links for more info: Blake's 7
Images:

[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/B7-Logo1.jpg]
[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/B7_Cast_A.jpg] Original cast
[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/B7_Cast_C.jpg] Third season/series cast
[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/B7Servalan.jpeg] Servalan, whom I believe Annie Lennox must have idolized

 

I used to have the whole of B7 on VHS, but I gave them away a couple years back. Who knew we'd still be waiting for a Region 1 DVD release?

Okay, from the 20th and final set for the Ultimate Challenge, I only had a couple fandoms that might be unfamiliar.

Xanadu
2007 Broadway musical (based on a 1980 US movie)
Xanadu, in both the original Olivia Newton-John film and the later stage version, was the story of a romance between a struggling artist and the Greek muse who inspired him to open a roller disco. However, while the movie centered on the artist Sonny and showed us some of his friends and coworkers, the musical instead concentrated on Kira, the muse (secretly Clio in this version), and expanded on the mythological elements that were barely present in the film. In particular, there was a new storyline involving the villainous Melpomene and her sidekick Calliope, as well as an added dimension to the name Xanadu, which became a mysterious prize that Zeus had promised Clio many centuries ago.

Up Pompeii!
1969-1970 UK television series
Up Pompeii! was a situation comedy starring comedian Frankie Howerd as a Roman slave named Lurcio (pronounced Lurk-io). After a pilot in 1969, it ran for two seasons in 1970, as well as a follow-up theatrical feature, television specials, and spinoffs set in later eras. In the series, Lurcio worked in the Pompeii household of an ineffectual senator, Ludicrus Sextus, and his family (a promiscuous wife and daughter, Ammonia and Erotica, and not-at-all-promiscuous son, Nausius). As Lurcio, Howerd would spend much of each episode talking directly to the audience. At the start, this would involve explaining the situation and trying (unsuccessfully) to tell a mythological prologue, but this would continue throughout the episodes with asides (often clearly improvised) making comments about characters (or actors!) and events.

 

Oh wow.... so many fandoms I haven't heard of, and so many more I haven't thought of in ages....

I've been having this thing about cop shows lately, can't seem to get enough of them. My weekly TV schedule involves: CSI: Miami, NCIS, The Mentalist, Bones, CSI: NY, and Eleventh Hour. (Oddly, most of these are Jerry Bruckheimer's work, I believe....)

If the scheduling wasn't so weird, I'd also be watching House and Fringe, but those shows conflict with things I'm already committed to, so thank goodness for DVDs!

I've toyed with a few Stargate fics, and actually started work on a Stargate/NCIS crossover, mainly because I thought DiNozzo's reactions would be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I can't write DiNozzo, so that idea was scrapped.

My current project is a Ghost Rider fic...

Name of original work: Ghost Rider
Original creator(s): Writers Roy Thomas & Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog (all of Marvel)
Original language and country of origin: English/USA
Media type: Graphic Novel (or as we called them in the old days, comic books...) and also a movie starring Nicholas Cage
Short summary: Much of the backstory involving the Ghost Rider is explained in the links to be provided. There apparently isn't one specific way to become the Rider. It depends on the character and the situation. In the movie version, Johnny Blaze (Nick Cage) sells his soul to the Devil in order to save his father from terminal illness. The Devil holds up to his end of the bargain -- curing Barton Blaze of the cancer -- but soon after causes him to die in a fiery motorcycle accident. Several years later, Johnny is a famous stunt rider when the Devil comes to collect, activating the power that changes him into the Ghost Rider. Other characters have obtained their powers in other ways. Some sell their souls, some (like Dan Ketch) obtain a "Medallion of Power."
It's interesting to note that there was a mid to late 1940's comic by the same name, but it was a western, more along the lines of a Lone Ranger type of thing. Marvel's version appears to have some western elements, too.
Links for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Rider_(comics)
http://www.marvel.com/universe/Ghost_Rider_(John_Blaze)

Poking around at the marvel site will yield more results and images. Basically, Ghost Rider is a flaming skeleton biker who runs around trying to rid the world of evil. Definitely an anti-hero, but with more emphasis on the "hero" part. Marvel has always been real good at that, creating heroes with a serious dark side. Inevitably, every Rider has to confront his or her own demons, both psychologically and frequently physically as well. In fact, you could probably break down an entire Ghost Rider series and find serious Jungian overtones..... Or I just think too much, I dunno..